Grad Logan Sekulow Launches Laugh-O-Gram, the Comic Strip Magazine

Share:

Between 2000 and 2001 Logan Sekulow graduated high school, chose to pursue a career in entertainment, moved from Atlanta to Orlando, and received his first degree from Full Sail University.

He was 15.

“At an early point in my life, maybe 13 or 14, I was very into film,” Logan explains. “Actually, I think it all started with Dawson’s Creek. Dawson was obsessed with becoming a director, and I think that may have, weirdly, put something in my head. Watching it as a kid, I started falling in love with the idea of making movies.”

Logan, who was homeschooled at the time, credits his parents for nurturing those early ideas. “My parents were very influential, always encouraging us to follow our dreams. So I wrote a screenplay and showed it to them. It was like, 60 pages. I think they realized, ‘Oh, there’s something here.’” Not long after that, Logan spotted an ad for Full Sail in the back of a Rolling Stone magazine. “It was an easy decision,” he says.

After graduating from Full Sail’s Film program, he took a couple years off. “I was still a kid. The placement department told me to come back when I was a little older. So I came back at 17 and got a job working on a show called Slime Time Live for Nickelodeon, back when Nickelodeon Studios was still at Universal. That, literally, changed my life. It connected me with people that I’m still working with to this day.”

Unfortunately, because Nickelodeon Studios Orlando closed soon after that, the gig only lasted a few months; however, Logan continued working on a variety of projects not only in Orlando, but also in New York, Atlanta, and Nashville. In 2010, he returned to Full Sail as an online student and received his second degree – this time in Entertainment Business. “I consider myself somewhat of an entrepreneur, and I’ve worked in a lot of aspects of the industry. A lot of randomness,” he says with a laugh. Included in that randomness are an array of documentaries and TV shows, as well as the narrative feature film As Dreamers Do.

Currently, Logan is based in Nashville and has launched a completely new project: a weekly, comics-only magazine called Laugh-O-Gram. “It’s all comic strips, printed in a newspaper format,” he explains. “Archie, Rugrats, Heathcliff, Mickey Mouse … all the classics we grew up with.”

The idea originated when Logan took his two-year-old son to see Big Hero Six in theaters. “They showed the trailer for the Peanuts film, and although a lot of kids nowadays have seen the Peanuts specials, I realized that most only know the characters from movies, and have no idea that it all started with a comic.”

Logan raised the topic with a few friends at Pixar and Disney, who confirmed what he’d already suspected. For most of them, the love of animation began with newspaper comic strips. “They’d try to draw something like Charlie Brown, and it was attainable. It was easy to recreate, or try to recreate, that art in some way. Heck, even for me … The funny pages helped me learn how to read, they helped me understand comedy. I’d love to pass that experience along to the next group of kids.”

To encourage a new generation of comic fans, Logan even includes a blank comic strip in each issue. He hopes kids will feel inspired to fill the spaces with their own creations.

Funded by a successful Kickstarter and supported (via reprinting rights) by three of the newspaper industry’s largest syndicates, Laugh-O-Gram currently consists of eight pages featuring 30 different comic strips. Subscriptions are ten bucks a month and include home delivery.

And – aspiring cartoonists, take note! – Laugh-O-Gram contains more than just classic comics. Logan is also accepting pitches for entirely new strips. “We’re really excited to be associated with big names like Mickey Mouse and Rugrats, and those are the kinds of brands that’ll get people in the door. But we hope people stick around for the new content. We’re looking forward to showcasing new artists.”

Anyone interested in pitching an idea for a recurring, weekly comic strip with family-friendly content (nothing profane or political) can contact Logan directly at Logan@laughogram.co.